SAN ANTONIO — It happened midway through the fourth quarter in Brooklyn, on the fourth game of the Spurs' recently completed rodeo road trip.

The Spurs emerged from a timeout in what became a 103-89 loss to the Nets in a zone defense.

The results were less than optimal.

“We had a couple young guys who weren't quite used to what we were doing, and we got a defensive three-second call,” guard Danny Green said. “We couldn't play it as much as we wanted to.”

If coach Gregg Popovich has his way, and he usually does when it comes to all things silver and black, the Spurs will spend a bit more time in a zone defense the rest of the season.

Installed out of necessity during an injury-plagued start to 2014 that often required the Spurs to compensate for a lack of size on the wing, Popovich liked the look well enough — the occasional defensive three seconds aside.

He vows the zone will remain a part of the team's defensive package even as it returns to full health.

“No matter how you slice it, you play a zone, and the other team stops,” said Popovich, whose team returns to the AT&T Center on Wednesday against Detroit. “We all moan and groan about it as coaches. For some reason, in the NBA, teams are discombobulated when they see a zone.”

The zone is a rarity in the NBA, where man-to-man schemes dominate every team's defensive playbook. Popovich views it as a change-of-pace defense to supplement his traditional system.

The last team to run a zone predominantly was the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, who discombobulated LeBron James' Miami Heat enough in the Finals to earn a championship.

In the 2003 Finals, the Spurs threw heavy doses of zone at New Jersey en route to winning the second of the franchise's four titles. In the time since, Popovich mothballed the defense except under extraordinarily specific circumstances.

“They used to play zone every side out-of-bounds (play), 14 seconds or under,” said Charlotte coach Steve Clifford, a former Houston assistant from 2003-07. “They'd play 1-2-2 zone every time.”

In Charlotte, Clifford has returned the Bobcats to the ranks of the nearly relevant in the Eastern Conference on the back of a scrappy man-to-man defense.

Yet Clifford also understands the utility of an occasional zone look.

“It takes away your (offensive) rhythm, because you're going to play different,” Clifford said. “And you don't see it a lot, so there definitely can be an adjustment.”

Implementing a zone comes with a downside, especially in the NBA where teams are ostensibly smarter and shooters deadlier.

It can be more difficult to cover the 3-point arc out of a zone, a necessity in today's league. It can be more difficult to rebound, since players are not assigned a specific player to box out.

“There's a lot of things that can go wrong in a zone,” Spurs guard Patty Mills said. “You don't want to stay in it too long.”

But, as Popovich has discovered, the zone also has its uses.

Pace and ball movement are paramount to NBA offenses these days. An unexpected zone look can throw up an immediate stop sign.

“Your initial reaction is to hold the ball and try to work out what they're doing,” Mills said. “As long as you hold the ball, people stand, and that's exactly what the zone wants you to do.”

Said Popovich: “The clock is a killer. You can't move (the ball) enough. It's a real frustrating thing for teams.”

In the 106-85 loss at Phoenix that closed a 6-3 road trip Friday, the Spurs used a zone to disrupt Suns point guard Goran Dragic in the first quarter. It worked so well that Dragic's backup, Ish Smith, came off the bench to scorch the Spurs for 15 points.

A zone defense isn't for the faint of heart. And, Popovich and others recognize, it isn't for every-possession use. Sometimes, as in Brooklyn, the only thing a zone discombobulates is a team's own defense.

Used as a curve ball, however, the zone is an effective tool the Spurs plan to continue to use going forward.

“It's just to mix it up, make the offense not get comfortable in what they run,” Mills said. “It's just a different defensive look we'll try to throw in there.”